


Conversations Over Chocolate

by MimiTheMuse



Category: The Baby Sitters Club
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-08
Updated: 2012-04-08
Packaged: 2017-11-03 07:31:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/378878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MimiTheMuse/pseuds/MimiTheMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia would always see that night when Janine came to ease a chocolate craving as the<br/>first time they really bonded as sisters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversations Over Chocolate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vivalalauren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivalalauren/gifts).



Saturday nights were Claudia's favorite night of the week. After she'd spent the daytime  
babysitting or doing a club project or just hanging out with her friends, the nighttime was hers  
to paint or read into the wee hours. Now that she was thirteen, and after pointing out that her  
older sister had no weekend bedtime, she was free to spend Friday and Saturday night as she  
pleased. Well, she had to be in the house and not make too much noise, plus be up at a  
reasonable time the next morning, but it was still time to herself without babysitting charges,  
friends or family.

Tonight she was sitting on her bed, reading The Secret of Shadow Ranch. Nancy Drew's adventure  
was giving her the craving to try her hand at painting horses. First she'd try some sketches,  
maybe get a book out from the library on horses to get everything right. Without really meaning  
to, she found herself at her desk, grabbing a piece of paper and working to draw a horse from  
memory. 

They had knees in the front, Claudia thought as she worked on her sketch, brow furrowed. But in  
the back they were like elbows...didn't they call those hocks or hacks or something like that?  
The mane and tail were easy, it was like drawing human hair. But the ears...

A knock on her door silenced the problem of horse ears in her mind. Claudia looked up at her  
clock, glad to see it was barely one in the morning. She would go to bed as soon as the drawing  
was done, though maybe earlier if her father was behind the door. He didn't think there was  
anything you could do after midnight that couldn't be done better during the day. At least her  
mother had argued the girls needed time to read and relax on the weekends. Sometimes having a  
librarian for a mother was a good thing. 

"Come in?" She called, turning a little in her desk chair to face the door.

The door opened slowly and her older sister, Janine, slipped into the room. Claudia was more  
than a little surprised, even more so when Janine closed the door behind her. They got along  
somewhat better after Mimi's stroke, but sometimes things were still strained between them.  
Especially when Claudia was having trouble in school, which was often.

"I was wondering if you had a surplus of chocolate." Janine pushed her glasses up her nose. "It  
would seem I'm running a bit low, and I still have half a paper to finish."

Leave it to Janine to make junk food sound like a language arts exercise. 

"Um, I think so..." Claudia got up from her desk and started rummaging through her room.  
Twizzlers under some paint tubes in a box under her bed. Jelly Belly jelly beans in one of her  
hats. Aha! The secret compartment in her jewelry box was just the perfect size to slip in a  
Hershey bar. She decided it was safe to show her best hiding spot and withdrew an unwrapped  
chocolate bar from the hidden slit on the bottom of the antique box.

"Tah-dah!" She presented it to her sister with a little smile. 

"Thank you," Janine took the chocolate with a little nod. "Very clever crevice in your jewelry  
box. Did you modify it?"

Claudia sat down on the bed, pulling a pack of mini peanut butter cups out of the bottom drawer  
of her nightstand. Suddenly she had a craving for chocolate too and it gave her a moment to  
figure out what on earth Janine was saying. 

"No," She began slowly, popping one peanut butter cup into her mouth. "It was like that when I  
found it at the thrift store."

"A wise purchase." Her sister nodded in return, peeling back the wrapper on the chocolate bar.

A silence settled over them that was either easy nor uneasy. There was a lot of that sort of  
thing lately, but Claudia decided it was better than the arguing. She crossed her legs and gave  
Janine another little smile.

"So...what's your paper about?" She probably wouldn't understand, but it was a good conversation  
starter. Or an argument starter, if she didn't watch herself.

Janine settled herself on the desk chair, biting into the chocolate bar. "It's about statistics  
on the shift of environmental concern in government funding. Unless it interests you  
specifically, it can be a bit dry. I am trying to make it more interesting for a wide audience,  
but I don't think they will ever make a movie about it."

Claudia chuckled a little, surprised that Janine was trying to have a sense of humor about her  
studies, which she took very seriously. Perhaps they were growing up a little. It was nice to  
think she wasn't rubbing her nose into being the dumb one, though she was considering she only  
understood half of what Janine had just said.

"I was just working on a sketch." She shrugged a little, feeling a bit embarrassed about how  
simple her activity was compared to Janine's. "A horse."

"I noticed," Janine nodded and smiled a little, turning to look at the drawing on the desk. "I  
think you have an excellent grasp of confirmation. Did you do that just from memory?"

"Actually, I did." Claudia felt a little flush of happiness. "I thought they would make an  
interesting subject for a still life."

"Indeed." Her sister nodded her approval.

Another silence settled over them, but this one was easier than the first time. Each sister was  
lost in enjoying a little late night sugar and attempting to have a moment of bonding. Claudia  
was glad they were making the effort now. Maybe someday they would be like their mother and  
Peaches, their crazy aunt who was completely unlike her sister. Despite being different, they  
were very close.

"You know, Claudia..." Janine began, pushing her glasses up her nose again, a nervous habit of  
hers. "You really do have artistic talent."

Claudia stayed silent, waiting to hear a lecture on how it was hard to make a living as an  
artist so she better start taking her schoolwork more serious. Or that artistic talent alone  
didn't give you the skills you needed to get into an Ivy League school. Of course she'd think  
that way, all she had to do was glance at a textbook and she got straight A's. It must be nice  
to be that smart. 

"I think, perhaps, we all have different sets of abilities. And it's not always fair to expect  
everyone to be artistic or academically gifted or physically attractive." She continued.  
"Sometimes I think our parents are not very fair to you on that matter. Yes, good grades are  
important, but I've seen the way you struggle sometimes and I cannot help but think that you  
should be more encouraged to use the gifts you have instead of ones that you may or may not be  
able to acquire."

At first Claudia wanted to jump in and say she wasn't stupid. On first glance, that's what  
Janine seemed to be saying. But for some reason, maybe the good feeling that had come from them  
doing a little bonding, she sat back and listen to her sisters words. And slowly it became  
obvious to her that those were the words she'd waited for for a very long time.

"I wish you could explain that to them." Claudia finally spoke, feeling tears prick her eyes.  
"I'm not stupid. I'm really not. But it seems like either I can't pay attention or I don't  
understand...and their solution is always just to study harder." 

"No, you are not stupid in the least." Janine agreed with a little shake of her head. "And I  
think Mom and Dad know that, but they apply it in a way that doesn't help the situation." She  
took a deep breath and looked down at her hands. "Perhaps I should give them my perspective. I  
don't know if it will help or not, but it is worth a try."

"Thank you," She managed a little smile and moved to hug her sister. "You're a tough act to  
follow, you know."

Janine gave a small, bittersweet smile. "It was never my intention for our parents to compare  
us, Claudia. We both have our abilities, and I couldn't even begin to draw or paint or do any of  
the things you do so well. And I think that's perfectly fine. Perhaps even better that way, that  
we cannot be easily compared." 

It was the closest to an apology Claudia had a right to ask her sister to give. After all, it  
wasn't Janine's fault their parents made things difficult. It was more their fault that the  
sisters that they didn't get along very well sometimes. Even then it was because they wanted the  
best for their daughters. 

Some things would change, some things would stay the same, but Claudia would always see that  
night when Janine came to ease a chocolate craving as the first time they really bonded as  
sisters.


End file.
